cannabisnews.com: Pot Police See Shift To Large Plantations Pot Police See Shift To Large Plantations Posted by CN Staff on October 30, 2003 at 11:14:14 PT By Howard Mintz, Mercury News Source: Mercury News California authorities this year have seized record amounts of marijuana crops growing on pot farms in all corners of the state, but Silicon Valley apparently is no longer a haven for the secret harvests.The state's annual Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP, netted marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.9 billion, a dramatic jump over past years that reflects what law enforcement officials say are increasingly aggressive Mexican drug cartels growing the crop in secluded public areas such as the Sequoia National Forest. ``This shows the skyrocketing numbers of large plantations,'' Attorney General Bill Lockyer said during a news conference in San Jose.Santa Clara County, where authorities two years ago found more pot growing than just about anywhere in California, was well down the list of trouble spots during this pot season. Tulare County, the target earlier this month of a major raid in the steep, remote hills of an Indian reservation, topped the state's list this year, with more than 140,000 pot plants confiscated.Overall, the CAMP program seized more than 466,000 plants, 100,000 more than last year. Authorities seized more than 6,000 plants each in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, more than 5,000 in Santa Clara, and more than 1,500 in San Mateo.California's traditional pot-growing region of Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties, known as the ``Emerald Triangle,'' is no longer the only favored spot of pot growers, at least on an annual basis. While Mendocino was third in pot seizures, large pot farms are now dotting other counties such as Shasta, Kern and even Napa's wine country.In a new trend, 75 percent of pot farms found by state authorities were on public lands, as marijuana growers have turned to planting their weed in forests meant for hikers and campers.Officials say Mexican drug organizations, which in the past smuggled pot into the United States from Mexico, are finding it easier to plant in the rich soil of California's most remote regions. And they are increasingly guarding the farms with armed lookouts.``We're becoming a source country for high-grade marijuana,'' said Dave Tresmontan, acting chief of California's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.Lockyer trumpeted the big haul in this year's CAMP program, even though he also has been at the forefront in California of supporting the medicinal-marijuana movement. He has criticized federal raids such as one last year on a Santa Cruz medicinal pot cooperative.Lockyer said he makes a distinction between cracking down on large commercial pot growers and those who may be cultivating small amounts for medicinal use.``I distinguish between that which is legal and medically needed, and the large narco-trafficking rings,'' he said.Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)Author: Howard Mintz, Mercury NewsPublished: October 30, 2003 Copyright: 2003 San Jose Mercury NewsContact: letters sjmercury.comWebsite: http://www.mercurynews.com/Related Articles:Pot: Anti-Cultivation Program Kicks Off http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17007.shtmlMarijuana Found Thriving in Forestshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14764.shtmlHow Green is The Crop?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11568.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #3 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on October 30, 2003 at 14:41:25 PT LTE Sirs, So CAMP is seeing marijuana grow operations shifting from the mom 'n' pop operations of the 1960s to mexican drug cartels? Perhaps they shouldn't have put mom 'n' pop out of business, should they? [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 30, 2003 at 14:12:19 PT Shishaldin It's nice to see you! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Shishaldin on October 30, 2003 at 13:56:55 PT My LTE Hi All- Been missing the CNews crew and decided to post this...Peace and Strength, ShishaldinEverything old is new again... I’m writing regarding the article by Howard Mintz, Pot Police See Shift To Large Plantations. In it, he states “the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP, netted marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.9 billion, a dramatic jump over past years that reflects what law enforcement officials say are increasingly aggressive Mexican drug cartels growing the crop in secluded public areas such as the Sequoia National Forest.” Let’s ask some questions here. WHY is a common weed worth $1.9 billion dollars? WHY are aggressive Mexican drug cartels growing a weed in California? WHY are they growing it on public lands? One word: PROHIBITION. Street prices for pot make it worth MORE than gold. Prohibition has always been a price support for criminals. We seem to have a very short memory in this country. Wasn’t it just about 70 years ago when we tried the spectacular failure known as Prohibition (for alcohol)? Capone, Dillinger, Luciano: they made their fortunes thanks to Prohibition. WHY do we want to make millions for criminals today by doing the same thing with pot? Alcohol kills thousands a year from auto accidents, liver disease, etc, but we know better than to try Prohibition again with it’s attendant violence and corruption. Here’s part of an editorial from 70 years ago. See if you can’t draw any parallels to today: News Telegram, Portland, Oregon, April 4, 1932, p. 6 “…this strange new doctrine (of the Anti-Saloon league) of course, overlooks the huge costs of prohibition "enforcement," the millions of dollars lost by outlawing beer and wine, and the terrific expense necessary for new prisons, hordes of new dry agents and the keep of thousands of prisoners. The fines collected from dry-law breakers do not amount to one percent of the huge waste of futile attempts to enforce the law. But, apart from the financial and practical sides of the affair, there is an ethical side. We doubt very much if any real American wishes the expenses of his government to be collected from murderers, racketeers and booze runners in the guise of fines. This nation has not yet sunk to level of morality of the Anti-saloon league, which apparently is willing to accept a split on the profits of crime.” Let’s do something we KNOW works (it’s been done before): Legalize, tax, and regulate! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment